A question of some urgency hangs over these two photos. We may
assume the family beach photo was the one intended to run through
the July Fourth news cycle. If so, did anyone in the Romney
campaign warn the candidate that the beach photo would evaporate
the moment the couple on that jet ski entered a lake teeming with
press-corps piranhas? Two possible conclusions flow from the
answer.

If no one warned Mr. Romney of the Kerryesque lobster roast his
ride would guarantee, then calls for a campaign upgrade are
plausible.

But what if the campaign staff did warn Mr. Romney but were waved
off by the candidate himself, confident in his own judgment? If
that happened, then neither the second coming of Lee Atwater nor
James Carville will save this candidate from blowing himself up
eventually with another bad call, such as a Dukakis-like photo of
the candidate riding in an Abrams tank in front of the press.

What do you think? (I actually had not realized that the
jet-ski photo had become so symbolic. Perhaps because if I had
had to guess what Romney might be doing on his vacation, this
choice wouldn't have surprised me. And perhaps because I didn't
really associate jet skis with the 0.01%--mega-yachts, yes, jet
skis, no. And perhaps because, if I owned a jet ski, I'd probably
want to ride it, symbolism be damned. But the vacation photos
were still fascinating.
You can check out a lot more of them here.)